Austria celebrates their overtime winner sending them to the top division of the IIHF Worlds – Photo @ Österreichischer Eishockeyverband
Austria will play in the top division of the IIHF World Championships in 2026 for the first time in history. With one game remaining in their Division 1A World Championship play, Austria has already earned gold and promotion.
Captain Anna Meixner, who plays for the PWHL’s Ottawa Charge led the charge for Austria scoring four goals and eight points in four games to get her nation there.
Meixner opened the tournament with back-to-back goal and assist performances in back-to-back 3-0 wins over Denmark and China.
In Austria’s third game of the tournament, Meixner and her Austrian teammates found themselves trailing 2-1 midway through the third period to Slovakia. Meixner however, put her team on her shoulders and scoring the tying goal with 8:56 remaining, and the game winning goal with only 33 seconds to go.
Thursday facing the Netherlands with potential promotion on the line, Austria put everything they had at the net outshooting the Netherlands 50-23.
After the Netherlands got out to a 2-0 lead, 16-year-old Emma Lintner, who looks like Austria’s next standout, got her nation on the board. In the third, with Meixner assisting, Annika Fazokas tied the game sending it to overtime. In overtime, Fazokas scored her second of the game to give Austria the win.
With the overtime win, Austria has 11 points in four games. With one game remaining, there are not two teams who can catch Austria, meaning they will automatically be promoted to play against the top teams in the World for the first time.
Fazokas sits one point behind Meixner with seven in the tournament, while Boston Fleet forward Theresa Schafzahl has five.
With the IIHF doing away with their tiered Group A and Group B format next season to use a snake format creating two more even groups, Austria will get the chance to play teams like Canada, USA, Finland, and Czechia.